BANGALORE: The services of National Service Scheme volunteers in schools will be used to create awareness of the need for sanitation among people in villages under the Total Sanitation Campaign.

The campaign was launched by the Union and State governments in 2005 through the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.

Minister for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Govind M. Karjol, who inaugurated a workshop for NSS coordinators on the Total Sanitation Campaign, said it was a welcome move as there were no toilets in over 90 per cent of rural areas, particularly in northern Karnataka.

There was a need to create awareness of the importance of maintaining sanitation, he added.

Acceptance

He said that in the past few months after he took over the portfolio, more people in rural areas had accepted the need for building toilets in their houses. Steps would be taken to build 51 lakh toilets in three years. The target for the current year was to build 21 lakh toilets for BPL (below poverty line) families, for which each family would be given Rs. 1,200.

Plan

Mr. Karjol said it was planned to build 2,000 community toilets, and toilets in 38,000 schools and 28,000 anganwadis with subsidy from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 40,000. Gram panchayats that were successful in encouraging people to build toilets in their homes would be given cash awards of up to Rs. 4 lakh, he added.

Move welcomed

Youth Services Minister Alkod Hanumanthappa welcomed the move to involve NSS volunteers in the programme as it meant harnessing their considerable presence in rural areas, where they offered "shramdaan" and devoted time to social and environmental causes. But he doubted whether offering subsidy would increase acceptance of the idea, and pointed out that when the Government made it mandatory for candidates in panchayat elections to build toilets in their homes, it caused a hue and cry.

Stay

V.P. Baligar, Principal Secretary, Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, said the High Court had stayed the order, and the subsidy component had been included as a means to encourage people to participate and sustain interest in the scheme.

A tool

He pointed out that 94 per cent of houses in northern Karnataka did not have toilets, and the Total Sanitation Campaign had become a tool for promoting construction of toilets.

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